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» CHAPTER THREE «

For the next week, AJ just sat in his hospital bed, not eating or talking to anybody. He couldn’t get Mya out of his head, how she had looked that night, or stop hearing her voice. ‘I’d be happy with you holding me forever.’ The last words she’d said to him.

"I would’ve held you forever. I would have done anything for you to be here right now," he said aloud to the empty room, tears running down his face. Since AJ had been sitting in silence, he hadn’t gotten the details of the accident. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He wondered what had happened to the engagement ring. He wondered a lot of things.

When his friends came in to see him, they were shocked by AJ’s appearance. Gone was the warm, crazy, funny guy that had commanded people’s full attention wherever he went. He had lost 20 pounds. He just lay in his bed, his eyes shadowed by grief.

Denise and all his friends didn’t know what to do. The Backstreet Boys’ performances were suffering because AJ wasn’t there and they were worried about him. Their fans were also worried, as well as the rest of his friends and family. Nobody’s life was the same.

Brian was sitting by AJ’s bed one day when he finally spoke. "Do you know what her last words to me were?" AJ almost whispered

Brian tried to keep from jumping for joy at the fact that AJ was talking. "What, Bone?"

"She said she’d be happy with me holding her forever."

Brian regarded AJ, smiling sadly, wondering if he should try something. "I could tell you what happened that night. Do you want to know?"

AJ took in a sharp breath. "No!" he said heatedly. Then after a moment, "Yes. I have to know."

"Just tell me if you want me to stop. As you already know, the limo was hit head-on by a truck that ran a red light. It flipped over and then skidded several hundred feet. Mya was...gone when the ambulance got there. Her head was hit really hard by something, and she just couldn’t survive it. The driver was killed too. You were unconscious for 3 weeks. The doctors said you probably wouldn’t wake up. We were so happy when you did. But now...AJ, it’s not the end of the world. You have to keep living. If for nothing else, do it for Mya. Would she like seeing you like this?"

"Mya can’t see me. She’s gone. What’s the point of anything anymore?" AJ said flatly.

"What about all your friends? Your fans? Your mom, for gods sakes?" Brian said in frustration. "Can’t you see how this is tearing all of us apart, most of all her?"

AJ knew this, he just didn’t want to face it. He didn’t want to face anything. So he just turned his head away from Brian and said nothing more.

"I don’t know if this will help you or make things worse, but when the paramedics found you, she was in your arms," Brian said, getting up to leave.

AJ whipped his head around. "She was?"

Brian stopped and turned back around. "Yeah. When you think of the last words she said to you, it kinda fits, doesn’t it?" With that, he walked out the door, leaving AJ to think about what he’d just heard.

"Yeah, Spice," he said tearfully, looking up at the ceiling. "Holding you forever."

¤ Chapter 4 ¤
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